


Post-Partum Pym Particles

by FrozenHearts



Category: Ant-Man (Movies), Doctor Strange (2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Ant-Man (2015) Spoilers, Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018), Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) Spoilers, Ava is a good guy and i love her, Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Spoilers, Canon Compliant, Do they save Scott? who knows not me, F/M, Gen, Hope survived infinity war fuck you guys, Magic, Post-Ant-Man (2015), Post-Canon Fix-It, Quantum Mechanics, Quantum Realm, Science, idk how to science, not really - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-14
Updated: 2018-07-14
Packaged: 2019-06-07 10:40:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15217391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FrozenHearts/pseuds/FrozenHearts
Summary: After Scott gets trapped in the Quantum Realm, Hope and Hank turn to a surprising source to get him back.





	Post-Partum Pym Particles

**Author's Note:**

> So fuck ant man and the wasp for killing off Hope and her parents during Infinity War after JUST GETTING HER MOTHER BACK WHAT THE HELL MARVEL
> 
> Also I know this isn't my best, but sometimes you have to write crap to get out some good stuff later.

The tunnel wasn't working.

Hope didn't understand- her father had gone in and came out just fine. Her mother went in freaking thirty-three years ago and came out with weird abilities but she was still alive. Possessing Scott to get out was a bit weird, but she was fine, they were fine. Even Ava- having been phasing in and out of the quantum realm all her life, she was still here. In pain but here. Whole and alive.

Scott went in twice. And he only came out once.

"Did we have the right equations?" Hank asked, "We need to get the energy back to Ava."

Hope bit her lip, fingers flying over the keyboard. She'd done the math a million times on paper and in her head; she knew the calculations were correct so why wasn't the tunnel working? Her mother had abandoned her own computer to sit with Ava, who was hugging herself as she went to sit down. Hope could see the pain in her eyes as she assured Janet she was fine, even as her mother rubbed her back and moved to sit with her.

She ran the numbers over again, green writing flashing on her screen. Wires ran from the computer to the van the tunnel sat in, sparking and blinking every so often. But she checked again anyway- the numbers were all there. Everything was correct. No anomalies could be detected so why the fuck was something wrong?

"It's gonna be fine, sweetie, we'll get him back," Hope heard her dad say, "Don't cry, it's alright."

She sniffed, slamming her hands on the console, "No! It's not! We only just got Mom back and Scott went in there once!"

"Exactly," Hank rubbed her back, "He went in once and came back out. Who's to say he can't come back again?"

Hands trembling, Hope rested them on the desk. Just because he came back once, however, didn't mean he was going to come back again. Her mind reeled with possibilities- would he get torn apart? Would Cassie be without a father? Would Scott forget everyone? She dared to steal a glance at Ava and her mother; Janet was holding a hand to Ava's temple, yellow light seeping from her fingers as she murmured something under her breath. Ava had her eyes squeezed shut, rocking slightly on her heels.

Hope remembered they only just managed to save Ava. To keep her from turning on her instincts to destroy Janet when she was so close.

Slowly, she wiped her tears away, her face feeling slightly sticky as her makeup ran but she ignored it. Pursing her lips, she turned to Hank, raising an eyebrow.

"What do you propose we do to get him out?" she asked, "Re-opening the tunnel is too dangerous and we've already opened it twice this week. We can't risk anyone else getting stuck."

Hank nodded, "I heard of someone else being able to use the Quantum Realm, but differently then we do. He might have some answers, but we'll have to be quick."

\-------

Dr. Stephen Strange liked to think of himself as a man of science. Yes he dabbled with chemistry, yes he dabbled in percentages but it was all in terms of the human body and what it could achieve. How to push the body to its limits, what could be done to achieeve certain mass and so on and so forth. Everything was done in a medical capacity, right down to a t.

This, however, was not in a medical capacity. This was nowhere near his jurisdiction, medical, magical or otherwise, so to find a group of people with a beat up hippie van outside the New York Sanctum was quite alarming indeed.

"Are you Stephen Stranger?" a woman with a dark ponytail asked. Her brow was knit with worry, her fingers clenched into fists.

"Dr. Stepehen Strange, yes," he corrected her, "Although I must warn you I haven't used my medical license in a while."

"We don't need a medical doctor," the woman started, then reconsidered, "well, we might but that's not the point-"

An older man with gray hair and thin glasses stepped forward. He was dressed smartly, and immediately Stephen knew he had to be in charge. Or at least under the impression that he was; older people were strange like that. He cocked his head as the man cleared his throat, holding a wrinkled hand out to shake.

"Dr. Hank Pym," he said, "and this is my daughter hope, and my wife Janet."

Stephen scanned their faces- Hope must be the woman with the ponytail, and he could see her resemblance to her mother, a woman with long white hair and curious green (or were they blue? he couldn't quite tell) eyes. That didn't, however, explain the last person hanging back, hunched in on herself as she struggled to stay upright.

Even if it wasn't magic nor medicine he could feel in the air, something was off about her. She seemed almost to blink in and out of his vision, despite standing right in front of him. Cautiously, he took a step forward, reaching out to take her by the shoulder-

\- only for his shaking hand to pass right through.

"What in the world has happened to you?" he asked, ignoring everyone else's pleas behind him. The woman glared at him, shaking visibly from pain, no doubt.

"We aren't here for me," the woman said, jutting her chin at her friends, "We're here for our friend."

"Your friend?" Stephen asked.

Hope nodded, "He went sub-atomic. He's too small to get out of the Quantum Realm and we heard that you were able to access it as well."

Pursing his lips, Stephen looked around. Aside from himself, Wong was the only person present at the Sanctum. While they did normally help anyone they could, it sounded like they were looking for a scientist. A physicist or something, not a former surgeon turned magician; however, the woman currently phasing in and out on the spot in front of him would be a medical miracle should anyone get their hands on her. Scratch that- SHIELD probably already did, the bastards. He was lucky they left him alone for the time being.

"I hope you all realize that I'm not a scientist-" he started.

"But you know about the Quantum Realm," the older woman, Janet, spoke up. She was staring with hard eyes, lips pulled into a frown. "We know about it too."

Stephen nodded, "Yes, as you mentioned it about three times. Is that what happened to her?" He pointed to the phasing woman.

"Ava is a quantic anomaly," Dr. Pym explained, "Just as you are a medical miracle yourself. And we're about to lose another quantic anomaly if you don't help us."

Stephen sighed, "You realize that as the Sorcerer Supreme, my methods will be rather... unnerving?"

"We don't care," Hope said firmly, "We just want Scott back."

Well, alright then. From the looks on their faces, he could tell there was no swaying them. Quickly, he ushered them inside, careful not to let his hands pass through Ava again, as she once more phased- it was odd, he thought, being able to see after-images of her person, almost as if she were a ghost. Footsteps confident, he strode across the room smirking at Janet's yelp of surprise as the Cloak of Levitation flew past them to settle around his shoulders.

"Just for a refresher, how exactly did your friend enter the Quantum Realm?" Stephen cracked his knuckles, waving his fingers in a complicated arc until he saw the telltale orange sparks forming in the air. "I myself had to turn back time and use a portal. What did Scott do?"

Dr. Pym pointed at the cloak, "How did you make this?"

Stephen scowled, letting himself finish the magic; it felt familiar on his skin, a faint buzz as he created the shapes and mouthed the words. Ava was watching silently, although he could see the obvious interest in her eye. Janet was wary, but Hope just seemed tired. Like she wanted to get in and get out and be done.

Stephen understood that feeling.

"The Cloak of Levitation was not made, it is sentient," Stephen rolled his eyes, "Now you mentioned before that your friend went 'sub-atomic', care to explain what that means?"

Clearing her throat, Janet stepped forward, "A while ago, Hank and I had suits- Ant Man and The Wasp. These suits allowed us to change our molecular structure at will to change our physical properties as need."

Stephen raised an eyebrow, "So you meddled with the structures of the universe?"

"It was a scientific endeavor-" Hank started.

"No, a scientific endeavor is finding the sure for cancer," Stephen cut him off, "What you did is just foolishness."

"We don't have time to decide what is foolish and what isn't!" Ava piped up, "Scott basically shrank until he disappeared and we need you to help us get him back out, okay?"

Stephen finished the spell, letting the magic hang in the air. His hands trembled slightly, and he withdrew them, rubbing his knuckles to ease the slight throbbing in his fingers. It made him wonder though- if Scott was currently in the quantum realm, had Ava gone there too? Is that how she became what she was? Forever tethered to two realities?

"I'll need to see your equipment and said suits," Stephen finally said, "any magic I do with it can be reversible unless is say it isn't."

Hope beamed, and Stephen suddenly found himself being hugged, her arms tighter then a vise around his mid-section. He felt the cloak flutter in surprise, tugging to get away from Hope's grip.

This was going to be a long day. Best get started while he was still awake.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm also really happy Ava (Ghost) became a good guy at the end I love her


End file.
